The Failure of Haven
by Psyga315
Summary: "How it is you failed so spectacularly?" Salem asked her group. It was perhaps the one awkward question that they feared answering. They all knew the answer, or so they thought.


"How it is you failed _so_ spectacularly?" Salem asked her group. It was perhaps the one awkward question that they feared answering. Unfortunately, they _all_ knew the answer.

Hazel, while more than willing to throw Cinder under the bus, decided that, for Emerald's sake, he'd deflect the blame.

"The Faunus Militia split our forces—"

"Stop." Salem's voice, without it ever being raised, froze Hazel in place. "Let's go back to the _very_ beginning. Watts explained that you had met Raven and her tribe, correct?"

"… Yes?" Mercury answered.

"So… Rather than pillage the camp and kidnap the Spring Maiden or even had Cinder absorb her powers, you instead try to negotiate with her." As Salem said that, Emerald stepped forward.

"Raven's the one who tried to negotiate!" Emerald shouted. Salem sighed and shook her head.

"And, like the idiots you were, you accepted her bargain and set up such a farce of a trap. The job was simple. Blow up the school, grab the Relic in the chaos, leave, and let the heroes pick up the pieces. But no, instead, you brought the heroes to the core of the conflict." Salem waited for their excuse.

"We thought we could take them on." Mercury shrugged his shoulders.

"And for a brief moment, I thought so too. That you could salvage from such a screw up. That at the very least, we can take some huge pieces off the table. Were it not for Raven tipping everyone off, you would have been able to wipe them all out without a second thought. Literally no one had an idea you had a trap set up. They didn't even realize it until Hazel got into the room!" Salem said. The room went silent before Salem continued.

"But instead of actually killing them right then and there, you stood there and let Cinder yap on and on, exposing Lionheart as a double-agent and ruin a valuable asset… In fact, why was he even there in the first place? He couldn't even beat a 14-year-old! Just have them waltz into a room and then destroy them! In fact, you _all_ just stood there and did nothing until some angry blonde kid had a temper tantrum and ran at Cinder when she could have simply burned him to a crisp. The lot of you could have easily beaten them given how they didn't seem to have team work and, as you saw with the Schnee's constant reliance on summoning and the blonde's pitiful attempt to kill Cinder, lack the proper training that you lot seemed to have." Salem took a breath and continued to speak before anyone else can jump in to defend.

"But, rather than mercilessly kill them like you have so many previous people, you instead toy with them… Shoot at them, taunt them, give them room to stare blankly…" Salem stood up after she said that, "no, you know what? What in the name of me is _up_ with that!? Most of you guys tend to just stand vacantly in a room and stare. And not _just_ you! _Everyone_ just stood there or slowly move around. Cinder could have easily killed any of them. ANY OF YOU COULD HAVE EASILY KILLED THEM! BUT NO! Even Ruby, who was knocked out, could have easily been killed." Salem growled.

"But didn't we need her alive?" Tyrian was soon met with a table to the face.

"No! _You_ were supposed to take her alive because I wanted _Cinder_ to kill her! Did anyone actually think I didn't want the _one_ person who has the _one_ advantage over my Grimm dead?" Again, silence, but not in the way Salem wanted. "… Are you _fucking_ kidding me right now?" She put the palm of her hand right onto her face. "You couldn't even press the advantage. Instead, Cinder decides to go down to the vault and not, you know…" Everyone rolled their eyes.

"Kill them, we know…" They all said.

"No. You _don't_ know. Because when blondie is angsting over the wrong person that Cinder stabbed, you instead decide to fight _one_ person! I get Hazel's reasoning, but you two could have been able to take out at least one or two of them by splitting up and going after the people who were too busy tending to the weak. Hell, you didn't even go for the blow when the silver-eyed girl decided to stop someone healing another person. But you know what? I'm tired of being a broken record, so I'll just end by calling you two out on _one_ thing." She pointed to Emerald and Mercury.

"Why didn't you two do anything to stop the _other_ blonde from jumping down into the vault?" She said.

"W-we tried!" Emerald cried out.

"No. You didn't. You simply leaped out at her without even deciding to use your Semblance which, funny enough, you've been using throughout the entire fight. And _you_ just grabbed her arm instead of following up with an attack. You could have even gone around the wall of ice that the Schnee summoned! Or, you know, SHOOT HER! You know, SHOOOOOOOT HEEEEEEER! I keep hearing that melee weapons are also guns, but surprisingly, they mean jack and shit for you guys, it seems. But no. No. You wanna know the biggest screw up you lot have made? Not following up on your attack. I didn't see much of the battle while I was busy cleaning up loose ends, but I saw that you didn't look worse for wear. You could have easily continued to fight them with how little advantage they had. But no. You decided to run." Salem said.

"B-but the police!" Hazel tried to speak, only for Salem to summon wacky waving inflatable flailing arms to grab Hazel.

"Even when Emerald freaked out and created an illusion of me? You could have snatched the Relic and ran! But no! YOU. DID. NOT!" Salem's voice _now_ hit the sheer volume and tone that made the illusion of her so scary. Only for a moment before she calmed. "So, before you say anything… You _all_ failed. Every. One of you." Salem said.

"Wait, how did you even see us?" Mercury asked.

"You dare question our Goddess!" Tyrian got up and shouted.

"Tyrian! It's okay, they should know." Salem snapped her fingers as a small jellyfish-like Grimm came forth. Emerald and Mercury immediately squeamed at the sight of it, though Watts, Hazel, and Tyrian seemed to greet it like an old friend. "I have this around places in Remnant to make sure things are going according to plan. You didn't think I would leave things up to chance, would you?" Salem put the table back up and sat down. "The _only_ benefit I can see out of this is to try and make people think that the attack was a false flag operation to make Faunus look good, but unfortunately, I can't even do that, because _now_ we need to focus on Vacuo and Atlas _long_ before they're even considered to be on the table. _So_, we shall call for a break, think about what you've done, and then we'll come back in a week. Okay? Okay. Now get out."

But Hazel didn't. Instead, he shirked off the arms and spoke up.

"There's one more thing… Ozpin's…" Salem rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, you don't need to tell me. We all know Ozpin came back. You think I'm gonna get upset over that?" Hazel shook his head and left the room, as did Emerald and Mercury.

"So… Where do _we_ go?" Watts asked.

"You and Tyrian will go to Atlas." Salem said.

"Okay then." Watts adjusted his shirt.

"Not _you_, Arthur." Salem said.

"… Okay, this is going to be stupidly confusing unless I somehow turn out to be some sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Watts sighed.

"It's going to be a _long_ hiatus." Tyrian then giggled.


End file.
